As usual, I'm late on this. Merry belated Christmas!

Tour of our new home!

I just realized that I hadn't taken any photos of our house post-construction. I would like to say that this is real life and my house isn't pristine. Please take note and no judging! Shall we begin: 

Here is our entry way. 

Dining room

Living room

Here's where the no judging part comes in. Kitchen. 

Other half of the kitchen. 

1/2 bath at the bottom of the stairs 

Laundry room at the top of the stairs

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Other side of master bathroom. 

Bedroom #2. This will eventually get organized into my sewing/craft room. It will also be the nursery when the time comes. 

Bedroom #3. We use it as the office. 

Bedroom #4. The guest room. 

Media room. 

Media room. Hubs used my scarf for the USA v. Panama MLS soccer game we went to this summer as decoration. This is his sports themed room. 

Media room

Media room. Everything hanging has been signed. 

And that's our home! We still have some decorating and organizing to do, but we have the rest of our lives to do it. 

My favorite parts are the media room and the master bathroom. I love using that bath tub!

2013 is going by so fast

Can't believe it's already November! This year is flying by!!

Vacation was fabulous. I did not want to return. It was so great to be in 80+* weather. It was NOT fun to come back to Washington State to this:


Total buzzkill.

Here are some photos from my trip:

My cousin's wedding in Darlington. This plantation has been in the bride's family for...ever? Absolutely gorgeous. 

First dance of the happy couple!

Driving across the border into Florida and you get fresh squeezed orange juice!

Our condo in Orlando. 

Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Me at Magic Kingdom

My brother and oldest nephew watching the characters outside Magic Kingdom. The boys did amazing at Disneyworld. Not one meltdown and both boys had ear infections, the youngest had molars coming in a Luke (the one above) is autistic. 

Grandma pushing Warren on the swing. 

Also, since I've been home, I've been cooking a little just to clean out our pantry and fridge so I can stock up on groceries sometime this week. I've been slacking, but this is what I've made lately and it's delish:

Pulled pork stuffed sweet potatoes - The Novice Chef

Baked pumpkin pie oatmeal - Budget Bytes

Cheesy Chicken Bacon Broccoli and Rice - Kevin and Amanda

I also have this in my crock pot for tonight's dinner. We'll see how it tastes!

Today I do day 4 of Insanity. I am so sore from the first two days, I could barely do my workout last night. Hubs has done this workout program 2 times all the way through already and is starting his 3rd time this week. He says that the workout I do tonight will help my sore muscles...I hope he's right. I can't pull myself up the stairs anymore! I'm okay when I'm walking, it's sitting down and getting up that has been killing me. I feel good though, have more energy, which is what I really wanted. That and a 6 pack....

Today's the day!

After work I leave for vacation, hallelujah!

Of course, I'm also sick. Again. For the 3rd time this fall..unless this cold never actually went away, then I'll have been sick since the end of August. Yuck! I've been downing DayQuil and Mucinex like candy the last few day. It's pretty disgusting. 6 hours and 15 minutes to go, I can do this!!

Since I can't seem to sit down and write a complete post, I'll just do talking points:

• I leave in 8 days for vacation. 8 DAYS. I am so ready for it! In 8 days I'll be down south for 12 whole days - Charleston, SC for my cousin's wedding, and then Disneyworld with my parents and my brother and his family. Can't wait!!
• Almost all settled in our new house. Still have some unpacking (not much) and organizing (a lot!) to do, but I believe it will be done in time for our house warming party this weekend. So excited to show off our new digs!
• While taking a break this weekend from organizing, I sat down and got hooked on ABC's Scandal (Thanks, Netflix). Season 1 breezed by (doesn't hurt it was only 7 episodes...) and now I'm into season 2. I should be done before I leave for the south so I can pick up when I get back and start watching the current season!

My summer in photos

I am horrible at updating this summer. It's been super busy though, so that's my excuse.

 

1.)Yesterday we signed the closing documents for our house! I picked up the keys after work and my mother in law and I got right to work sealing all the grout and granite in the joint! I have a hair appointment after work today so I am not able to go to the house, but Hubs will be painting two rooms. Wednesday is the Hub's day off so he's renting a Uhaul and moving furniture. My goal is to be sleeping in the house Wednesday night. I miss my bed!!

 

2.)The last weekend of August I spent down in Portland for our annual girls weekend. We usually go to an Oregon ocean town, but because everyone had lack of funds this year (Denise and I just purchased homes, our friend Mickey flew in from NYC, Leah is 8 months pregnant getting ready for baby, Tori is going on a holiday with her husband to England to visit relatives, etc) we stayed local in the Vancouver/Portland area because a lot of the girls are from there. Saturday we had a few hours to kill before the WSU v. Auburn football game, so we drove out to a local vineyard for tastings. We got there before the tasting room opened, so we walked the grounds and came across these grapes. I thougth it was artsy.

 

3.)Earlier in the summer (July-ish), some girlfriends and I drove an hour and a half northeast to Rattlesnake Ledge (across from Mt. Si in North Bend, WA). Once we hiked up to the top, we took a lunch break and had to take a shot of us. In the background is a wildfire on Mt. Si. It had closed the whole mountain from pedestrians due to the smoke and they were afraid it was going to spread.

 

4&5.) I was on my way to the last preseason Seahawks game and there was a crazy flash flood in Seattle. Even though I left a lot of room in between my car and the car in front of me, when I slammed on my brakes after the car in front of me stopped abruptly, because of the amount of water on the road and my brakes locking, I hit him. He was driving and Jeep Wrangler so all the damage was done to my car. I hit the stupid spare tire of his. Farrah the Xterra is in the shop with $4k worth of damage. <insert crying here>

6&7.) These were two anniversay/house warming presents from my sister-in-law. I'm a huge fan of fall, and since I'll be house poor I won't be able to afford Starbucks' pumpkin spice lattes for awhile. It was so sweet of her to spring for my pumpkin addiction. I love the candle, it smells so good! I had the lid attached to my nose the whole day. My new favorite scent from Yankee Candle.

8.) Because Mickey and I shared a bed the weekend of girls weekend, I was "gifted" the cold she had. Woke up on Sunday with a sore throat and that was it. Tried to Airborne, chicken noodle soup, tea it away. I was pretty miserable on Tuesday when I went back to work (Monday was Labor Day), so when I woke up on Wednesday and still felt horrible, I didn't hesitate to call in sick. I slept until noon when my mother-in-law woke me up (we're staying with them until we move into the house) to let me know she and my father-in-law were leaving to head out of town to Reno, NV for the balloon races which is a yearly tradition for them. After waking up, I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to get some reading in. Currently I'm reading Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I really enjoyed Gone Girl, so I figured I'd like this new book. So far, I do! :)

Hashtags: #FakeJayZLyrics

I have been obsessed with this video all morning.  I'm in a mini-van!

Source: YouTube